Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness

For years, (along with other members of the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society), I've been affiliated with the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness (PCEH). It's an amazing organization of great, hard-working people aimed at measurable and sustainable results in ending homelessness in Philly. With the economy in its current state, we can be sure thier job is harder than ever.

Given how hard these people work, the least I could do is contribute to their annual charity art auction. I haven't received word about it recently, and I am not sure if they still have it. But below are some of my past contributions:

In 2004, the PCEH gave all of their artists the guts of a clock to use as a palette. There was a theme to the show, something like "Time is running out on homelessness." I was invited in on really short notice. Lucky for me, I had my cousin Sean, a street artist, to help me with the project. You can't really see Sean's work in this photo, but he did an awesome job of making the frame of the clock look like graffitied subway walls to depict urban decay.

The face of the clock was drawn and painted by me, using ink and Dr. Martin's watercolor inks on bristol. The words came from something I might have to tell myself to get up every day and move forward if I were in the position of being homeless. It astounds me, the strength that some people have, to move forward through life while having so very little. It also makes me realize how spoiled so many of us are (myself included).

I was really proud of this one, not only because I got to work with Sean on it. There is a street team of young volunteers who work with PCEH. At the auction, they started a collection from all the folks at the event, and raised enough money to win the bid on this piece. Our clock now hangs in the PCEH offices. I was touched that these kids thought enough of our work to want to keep it on display.

These three pieces were done for the 2007 auction. The theme was "Every child deserves a home." I believe that is the campaign that PCEH is still running. I used colored Micron pens for all three of these pieces.
This one has a lyric from the Tom Waits song "House Where Nobody Lives":

I gave some more work in 2005 and 2006, but I can't seem to find photos or scans of them at the moment.

Sketches of Fishtown # 63

I thought this old-tymie one of Rev. Woolston made a good followup to the high tech Pastor Dan Roth I had in issue # 62.

Meathaus SOS Comics

I love comics, all kinds of comics. I don't think I'm that good at making them, but I want to get better at it. It's tough drawing characters and places over and over again. In most of my illustrations, I am very detail-oriented. But with comics, I believe you need to let go of some of that for reasons of consistency, economy, page flow, and just being able to finish a story in a decent amount of time. When drawing comics, I force myself to do a lot more brush work, so I don't get bogged down in the details with small pen lines.

I love the language of comics, how the reader engages their imagination to fill in the gaps of what happens between the panels. It's a unique art form in that way. You drive your reader - panel to panel, page to page.

The piece below is a six page story I did in 2007 for a comics collective I belong to called Meathaus. Meathaus is an amazing brotherhood/sisterhood of indy cartoonists and comics makers. I've gotten a lot of my freelance work just from being affiliated with this group. It has shown me that there is safety in numbers. Publishing as a group gives you so many advantages. You have a collective of people to give you constructive criticism. You can pool your financial resources for printing costs. You can work on smaller projects that don't make you feel like you have a boulder on your back. I'me very thankful for the "Haus".

I had the idea for this strip for years. It's loosely based on an old story I heard from one of my relatives. I waited until Meathaus published our first full color book, Meathaus 9, S.O.S. It was our second anthology published by another company. This go-round, the folks at NERDCORE published our book. So we didn't have to put up any of the printing costs at all.

Jazz Musicians

I hung out with another cartoonist the other night at Ortlieb's Jazzhaus (3rd & Poplar). We did a little drawing and lightly celebrated Mardi Gras while listening to the Haus Band. Ortlieb's is a great place to hear jazz and draw musicians. I've been going there for longer than I care to admit.

Music more than visual art is an inflence on my drawing. The reason is that while drawing, I can absorb music. You can't look down at your drawing table and observe someone else's visual art at the same time. But you can draw and listen to music. Music has an effect on the rhythm of my hand and consequently, my line.

Tuesday night gave me the itch to dig up some of my jazz musician drawings. I have a whole bunch more tucked away in sketchbooks. But these are some of the more polished examples. I'm sure I'll post more as time goes by.

Thelonious Monk plays how I feel. He is probably the biggest artistic influence I have. And when I want to just sit and draw like I draw, I put on a 2 CD set called "Monk Alone" filled with amazing solo piano work. Here are two variations on Monk. One is a bit more realistic with paint, ink, colored pencil, and spray paint:

The other is done with ink, marker, and colored ink. I really tried to accentuate the dichotomy of his music in this piece, showing how both hands are working differently. I used the thin blue crazy lines in the background to try to bring out all his schizophrenic passion. I wound up selling this piece to a fella named Challie, who recently moved to my neighborhood. He's the only other Monk fan I know around here.

P. Jaybon Mason was also known as Mr. Delicious to some folks who'd venture up to the Hollywood Palace at 52nd & Walnut. Jaybon catered a Philadelphia Cartoonist Society party years ago. Some of his sweet potatoes and crab legs spilled in by back seat. Some days I still swear I smell his cooking when I'm driving. Jaybon passed away, but I'll never for get him or his cooking or all of his trumpets. He used to love to play the tune "Hard Times".

Cliff Lamar was a friend of mine who passed in 2006. He played with Nate Wiley & the Crowd Pleasers at Bob & Barbara's for over ten years. When he passed, Nate eulogized him at the funeral by saying, "He was the best part of my band." Cliff was the picture of the word "gentleman". He used to do some drawing himself. I have some of his original sketches. He was also master of the polyrhythms on the drums.
Here are two variations of Billie Holiday I did - pen & ink with Photoshop color. Her voice is so strong and brittle at the same time. Her phrasing is immaculate. She's so subtle and sweet and sad. I like that in the good recordings, you can actually hear her lips pulling apart as she sings.


Nate Wiley was one of the best friends I ever had. He was my hero, and a gigantic influence on me as far as work ethic and family go. I miss him terribly, but I am grateful I got to know him as closely as I did. I did this one for one of his birthdays:
This was a memorial I did after he passed. We made silkscreen prints of it and sold them to benefit his widow, Henrietta. Nate always called me "Pat" even though he knew my name and read it in print. Guess it was just easier for him. He would get ornery sometimes and criticize that I drew him too fat. He'd say, "You sure do make a big man outta me, Pat." And I'd just reply with a smile, "That's because you're larger than life to me, Nate."

Range Records Album Covers

Music has a huge effect on how I draw my cartoons.  Music is always playing when I am at the drawing table or on my Ipod when I draw at diners and pubs. 

Here are a few album covers I did over the past year or two for Range Records.  Both albums were produced by Grammy Winner Aaron Luis Levinson.  He makes amazing concept albums (Spanish Harlem Orchestra, The Philadelphia Experiment, The Harlem Experiment).  Aaron has amazing taste in music and is a great friend of mine.

The first was filled with all Lonnie Johnson songs.  Lonnie lived in Philly for most of the latter part of his life.  He was an amazing blues guitar ground breaker who also played jazz with Eddie Lang and Louis Armstrong.  At the release party, I had the honor of meeting Lonnie's family and the amazing guitarist Jef Lee Johnson, who seemed to channel Lonnie in his performance.

This album cover was not used, as the concept for the album was changed.  Harmonious Wail is a great Gypsy style jazz band who uses Django-esque intricate guitar work combined with very sweet vocals.  The working title was "Who Loves the Sun" after the Velvet Underground song that is on the album.  Aaron being a great conceptualist, had Harmonious Wail play some rock gems like this in their own style.  They also cover Tom Waits' "You Can Never Hold Back Spring", which I love.

The band overhauled their entire website and marketing materials with a hipper, more quirky and old-tymie sensibility.  I like this one much better and feel that it more aptly fits the mood of the album.  A very generous friend of mine modeled for the front cover for me. 

Both of these albums can be purchased through the Range Records website.  Click here to go there.

WATCHMEN at IMAX Theater in King of Prussia with the PCS

The Philadelphia Cartoonist Society is doing a joint event with IMAX for the release of WATCHMEN. At the King of Prussia IMAX Theater, we have our work displayed in the lobby as posters for the film. This piece above is my contribution. They have it framed up and lit from behind at 24" x 36".

Atlantis Show

Just a few of the images that will be framed up for the March Show at the Lost Bar.






This one is also a limited edition screen print that will be available there: